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Belgium among the worst corona students in Western Europe

The federal and regional top ministers will take extra measures on Wednesday at a Consultation Committee to regain control of the corona crisis. In infections, admissions and deaths, we appear to be one of the Western European brutes.

In Belgium, 156 beds were still available in intensive care for corona and other severely needy patients on Tuesday. Such a small margin is exceptional, but also occurs in non-corona years. During severe flu peaks – usually around February – the margin on intensive care drops to 100 beds.

It means that, at the request of government care managers, hospitals will have to postpone all non-urgent interventions – procedures after which patients have to be in intensive care for more than 24 hours. It is a difficult ethical decision for any hospital as to what is considered urgent or non-urgent.

156

places in intensive care

In Belgium, 156 beds were still available in intensive care for corona and other severely needy patients on Tuesday.

The federal and regional top ministers will therefore meet early on Wednesday for a Consultation Committee. There are now 557 corona patients in intensive care, a figure that is increasing by an average of 3.5 percent per day. The hope is that recently taken measures – such as the reintroduction of face masks – will halt this increase and that the number of intensive corona patients will cap at 750 to 800 at the beginning of December. If the current growth rate continues, the number will rise to 1,000 in a few weeks.

170 beds out of order

That means misery. Of the theoretical capacity of 2,000 intensive care beds – corona and others – only 1,830 are actually available. 170 are out of order, mainly due to lack of staff to put the beds. Each bed in the intensive care unit requires an average of three to four specially trained nurses.

The resurgence does not seem to be easing. Tuesday there were again 287 hospital admissions. The climb in the number of corona patients in hospital – an average of 3.2 percent per day – appears to be decreasing. The hope is that it will become a trend that will also manifest itself in the intensive care unit afterwards.

The situation is not comparable to last year. In November 2020 – when there were no vaccines yet – a comparable number of infections averaged about 500 admissions per day, almost 1,500 corona patients in intensive care and 200 deaths per day. In the past week, there were an average of 27 deaths per day.

Recurring pattern

A relatively low number of deaths is a recurring pattern in countries with a high vaccination coverage. Even with a high number of infections and admissions, such as with us and in the Netherlands. In addition, there are countries that link high vaccination to sticking to protection measures – which Belgium decided to let go of after the summer. Those countries – such as Portugal, Spain, France and Italy – have the situation under control due to low virus circulation.




An outlier is the United Kingdom. Due to its rapid vaccination campaign, it was the first in Western Europe to be confronted with a serious corona outbreak, but in the meantime the admissions and deaths have been declining – without a too drastic corona straitjacket for the population. The British attribute this to a raging third-shot campaign. It seems to confirm what is also seen in Israel: a booster shot is an important part of the package to get back to grips with the epidemic.

The situation in Eastern Europe is downright dramatic. There are many infections, patients and deaths there due to the low vaccination coverage.

The law of large numbers

The conclusion is that our country is one of the worst students in the Western European class. We are at the forefront of the wrong statistics in terms of infections, daily admissions and deaths per million inhabitants. There is currently no good explanation for this.



We are at the forefront of the wrong statistics in Western Europe in terms of infections, daily admissions and deaths per million inhabitants.

The hope that vaccines would drag us through the fall and winter without much worrying damage has turned out to be an illusion. The vaccines do their job against serious illness and hospitalization, says corona commissioner Pedro Facon in his evaluation for the consultation committee. ‘But there is less of an impact in terms of infections. The high virus circulation causes many breakthrough infections (vaccinated people who nevertheless become infected and are then contagious for a period of time).

‘It’s the law of large numbers,’ says Sciensano virologist Steven Van Gucht. ‘The group of infected but vulnerable people and the group of unvaccinated people turn out to be too large to survive with vaccines alone if there are ten thousand and more infections every day. That is why extra measures, such as mouth caps and a corona pass, are still necessary. As we’ve been saying for months.’

‘Rules that apply to everyone, because it is too simple to speak of a pandemic of unvaccinated people. Certainly, people under 65 who are vaccinated are nine times less likely to end up in hospital than unvaccinated people. over 65s three to four times less. But there are also risks for the vaccinated – often the frail and the elderly.’

regain control

The focus of the Consultation Committee is on regaining control with measures that can be sustained for a very long time. ‘The objective remains: keep businesses, catering and schools open’, Prime Minister Alexander De Croo (Open VLD) looks ahead. He wants broad measures across different sectors.

De Croo prepared the Consultation Committee with his top ministers on Monday. A proposal to required to work from home for four days stands out the most. There are signals from Flanders that the consignments about working from home could be a bit stricter, but that four days’ home obligation is already going too far. Also controversial is the proposal to impose mouth caps from the age of nine, as Minister of Health Frank Vandenbroucke (Vooruit) wants. Flanders will find an ally in the PS for this. A third important Flemish point is that a turbo is put on the booster injection campaign.

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